I don’t know why I’ve spent so much time thinking about this… I really don’t. But I keep coming back to this in my mind. In my latest batch of noodling, I’ve been able to clarify the mission statement of this ‘project’ that’s barely a project: It’s about reducing fatigue. We’re all feeling it, so how do we keep it fresh? Minimising cognitive load, as I’ve mentioned above, is a major one - introducing new shit as late as is relevant, and taking things back off the board early, without breaking things - and another is flow and pacing, best achieved by balancing the highs, lows, and crossovers. I really like the eight-item cadence to a lot of this.
The issues I’ve been more focused on lately is that, now we’ve had Loki 2 and Marvels 2, what’s the right balance of all the post-Endgame stuff now that we’re ramping up the multiverse. I spent a huge amount of time and thought revisiting that era, with the big challenge being wanting to put Loki and What If 1 as early as possible (as they so immediately follow from Endgame), versus needing to not overwhelm. I tried shifting Guardians to let Loki-Spidey be that first arc, I tried Loki-Wanda as the core, etc etc. But the big determining factor in my decision for the current ordering was all the multiversal stuff (Sony Spider-Man, Fox X-Men) that starts to play into the current MCU plot. In essence, if we introduce the multiverse (via Loki, What If, Sony Spidey, etc) at the same time as dealing with the more grounded post-Endgame content which also seeks to set up the new Earth-616 stakes, there’s no focus and we’re throwing so much new shit at the wall with very little coherence or payoff. Or in other words, we haven’t dealt with the fatigue problem. And then if you’re watching Sony Spidey and Fox X-Men during this period, it’s even worse.
So the focus of the post-Endgame block really must be to wipe the slate as clean as possible so that the viewer doesn’t burn out on all this New Shit.
For PHASE FOUR: AFTERMATH then, it’s as I had it before:
- Spider-Man: Far From Home deals with our fear over the next Avengers-level threat (plus Spidey, post-Tony, and Fury).
- Falcon and Winter Soldier deals with the global political state post-Endgame (plus Sam and Bucky, post-Steve and a hint of Wakanda)
- Daredevil is necessary here for Daredevil and Kingpin
- Thor: Love and Thunder deals with Asgardian refugees post-Endgame plus (plus Thor and Valkyrie)
- Hawkeye deals with post-Avengers issues and more Kingpin (plus Yelena and new Hawkeye)
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special sets them up again
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings introduces some new shit (plus an update on Hulk and Captain Marvel)
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 wraps them up and takes them off the board in a big, satisfying finale.
At this point, the decks are as clear as they can be. The focus is almost entirely on existing known characters and the state of the world post-Endgame. And because the decks are clear in 616, we’re not desperate to see those plotlines immediately continued, and can spend a bit longer diving into ‘side stories’ if we want to. Now we’ve got that much more mental space for getting into the multiverse - either directly through the MCU 616 content, or going into the actual cross-franchise multiverse instead. Forget interludes (nobody needs that much structure) here we’re just saying “view multiverse stuff in this position”, again with a goal of keeping it as digestible as possible. We also strip out What If, making that optional too.
So PHASE FIVE: MULTIVERSE can now become something much more focused:
- Loki 1 kicks it all off. It’s timeless, and ends up with a Multiverse (and Loki in unknown time).
- What If 1 optionally goes here to introduce the concept.
- Sony Spider-Man optionally goes here for those wanting a deep dive before NWH. (Plus Venom if you fancy.)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home is our big, exciting, fan-favourite multiverse story, featuring three Spideys and Doctor Strange. The biggest sacrifice of this ordering is having this paced a while after Far From Home, but I think it’s far more beneficial this way. Here, we open on a flashback to just after he’s been outed by Mysterio, then we assume that his legal troubles occupied perhaps at most a year - in which the previous phase occurred.Then after Daredevil steps in and clears it all up, we’re back to the present in the timeline.
- Fox X-Men (core movies) optionally goes here. Now it’s time to see actual new characters from other worlds - not just alternate versions of our own. Let’s introduce Pietro, Xavier, and Beast at the very least - they’ll appear again this phase.
- What If 2 optionally goes here. If we’re taking such a big break to go through Sony Spidey and Fox X-Men, this brings us back to our familiar characters and storylines (in a multiversey way).
- Note: If we’re doing these major side-stories, we’ve now got them out of the way before the Multiverse/Kang stuff really ramps up in 616.
- Wandavision is here, as early as we can get it. Even if you ignore the Pietro tease, Wanda, Maria Rambeau, and Monica Rambeau will return this phase.
- Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania sits here, balanced between the two Loki seasons, and set in the middle of this phase, developing the Kang threat we’ve had since Loki 1, and giving us the update on our final group of post-Endgame characters not yet returned to.
- Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness now brings our 616 characters to other universes, starting the true crossover phase. Wanda, Doctor Strange, Maria Rambeau, Xavier, and even Captain Carter for the What If fans. We’re getting serious.
- Loki 2 next. Again, it’s timeless, but it serves to temporarily reduce the Kang threat (letting us forget him for a while) and it’s just great. And it leaves us clear to take a run at our final two items:
- Ms. Marvel has some further nice reflecting on the prior Avengers, and directly leads into-
- The Marvels, with a great focus on Carol, Kamala, and Monica, then that nice multiversal tease with Maria and Beast, and setting up Kamala looking to team up with young Hawkeye.
At this point, the multiverse stuff is active but not so loud it can’t be put down for a little while to focus back on core 616, and nothing from 616 is demanding too much attention or memory either.
The remainder of the content can sit by the wayside for now, probably giving us a phase six that looks roughly like Black Panther 2, Eternals, She-Hulk, Echo, What If 3, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, Eyes of Wakanda, [Logan and Deadpools,] Deadpool 3. A bit of a mishmash, but again we’re left with some room to breathe here, before 2025 gives us a proper 616 escalation with Cap 4, Thunderbolts, Ironheart, Daredevil Born Again, Spidey 4, etc.
Again, I have no idea why I’ve put so much thought into this…